Whiteshill and Ruscombe Garden Birdwatch

This year there will be another Garden Birdwatch in the Parish Sat 27th and Sun 28th January. Last year 38 people took part and 30 species identifies - this year there are hopes that even more people will take part.

Photo: view across to Whiteshill from Randwick

All it entails is an hour of watching birds that live in or visit your garden next weekend. Whiteshill and Ruscombe Wildlife Group and Stroud Valleys Project are organising the event - forms can be got from the Village Shop. It is timed to coincide with the RSPB national bird survey.

Last year the Blackbird was the most commonly sighted bird followed by the Blue Tit and Robin. The Blackbird was also the most numerous with an average of 2.2 in each garden. The most noticeable decline from 2005 was Greenfinches.

It is a sad fact that our bird populations are in decline.

As well as disappearances of birds, there has been a serious, countrywide, decline in the numbers of many bird species, including many well known and loved birds such as the song thrush, skylark, lapwing and house sparrow. Thankfully we've still got larks in the field in front of my house.

The RSPB report that the decline in birds has been slow and gradual, rather than sudden. Most of the declining species are farmland birds. On the other hand, most woodland species such as the blue tit, nuthatch and great spotted woodpecker are still doing alright. However, declines may have started in woodland habitat also, with lesser spotted woodpecker and willow tit now red-listed because of their severe declines.

From the RSPB website below - strangely they fail to mention our changing climate in this list - yet elsewhere they have many papers showing how it is effecting bird populations - see here for example how upland birds are particularly suffering. They also have a good report to download here.

Extensive research has shown that these declines are caused primarily by changes in agriculture.

1. Increased efficiency has resulted in:

• grubbing up of hedgerows to create larger fields
• ploughing up closer to the edge of the field to increase the planted area
• drainage to dry out damper areas and remove wet flushes from others, all to increase production.

2. Changes in cropping practices etc:

• shift from spring to autumn sown cereals
• as soon as one crop is harvested, next one goes in - the land has no time to rest and lie fallow.

3. Specialisation of farms and regions to either arable or livestock production, resulting in loss of the habitat diversity that many birds need to survive.

4. Increase in the use of farm chemicals - fertilisers and pesticides.

5. Increased efficiency in grain and animal feed storage, and exclusion of wild birds from cattle feeding stations etc. because of Government policy.

6. Changes in farm buildings to exclude birds, replacement of old buildings with modern ones.

Although the actual factors that cause the decline are similar to most species, the exact way they act differs, which is why some species have been declining for 30 years, while in others the decline has only become prominent in the past 10 years.

The following lists percentage declines of some bird species recorded in Common Bird Census between 1970 and 1999:

• Tree sparrow -95%
• Corn bunting -88%
• Willow tit -78%
• Spotted flycatcher -77%
• Woodcock -74%
• Starling -71%
• Turtle dove -71%
• Song thrush -56%
• Bullfinch -53%
• Skylark -52%
• Cuckoo -33%

Changes in agricultural practices have had a devastating effect on farmland birds, and this process has been fuelled, particularly in north-west Europe, by European agricultural policies.

The 2003 Common Agricultural Policy reform is a step in the right direction, breaking the link between subsidies and production, and we think the new policies will help to make a significant difference for farmland wildlife. Today we understand more about the causes of these bird declines, and we are working to devise new management techniques to reverse the downward trend and benefit farmland birds. Many people don't think that this would be the reason for the decline of birds in suburban and urban areas. However, as 80% of this country is farmland, what happens there, will affect birds in all habitats. This is especially true of urban populations, since in most cases, the urban and suburban populations are an overspill from the better habitats in the countryside.

The house sparrow is an exception to this. Its populations in city centres are self-sustaining, and the exact way that the exceptionally great declines in centres of large cities are caused may differ in some respects from the surrounding countryside. As yet, the definitive cause for the city centre declines has not been determined.